>> good afternoon, a brand new hour on the fox business network. melissa: breaking by the minute. the deadline fast approaching. the president and house speaker both throwing out ideas while criticizing the other one. is there a deal to be had in any of this? neil cavuto weighs in.

lori: apple downgrades piling up on the stock, but we have the one who says this is the time to buy the stock on the cheap and he is not watching his 1111 per-share price target. is he right? the stocks soaring as a whole. melissa: the next round of texastaxescome he may not even e your money is gone. lori: let's check in with nicole on the floor of the new york stock exchange. wall street optimistic for fiscal cliff deal? nicole: that is right, as a deal gets closer and closer, the sentiment is it gets done at least partially in some way shape or form. talking to the traders, that is what they say the market is telling you.

positive results out of washington have been priced into this market. the dow jones industrials dropped nearly 1%. the nasdaq up 1.4%. a look at the dow jones intraday with a majority of the dow components all into the green, names like bank of america leading the way, oil services all doing well, and talking with equity partners and said why does it pop right now if they think the fiscal cliff talks come to fruition. he said people are chasing. some people taking short-term profits, but altman o alternatee are still believers in a santa claus rally and the fact washington will get it right. melissa: nicole, thank you very much. proposals to avert the fiscal cliff coming fast and furious right now. we want to get you up to speed on where every proposal stands. for the first time the president conceding on tax hikes on those

over 400,000 instead of 250,000 per year. that would raise in theory $1.3 trillion in revenue. speaker benard plans for tax hikes on those who make over a million dollars along with a trillion in spending cuts. although it looks like we may be getting closer to a deal, speaker john boehner is pressing a backup plan just in case. speak i think it is important to protect as many american taxpayers as we can. our plan b. would protect american taxpayers who make a million dollars or less and have all their current rates extended. melissa: but the white house and democrats are rejecting the plan b. saying it does not ask enough of wealthiest americans on taxes. let's bring in matt welch, editor-in-chief of "reason" magazine. i wonder right out of the gate looking at plan a. and plan b.,

does speaker boehner have conservative republicans on board, can he get either done? >> you will ge get enough peoplo pass a deal, probably, but what happens to him after he passes an unsatisfying and not very good public policy deal in january and february, what happens for speaker boehner. republicans realize they have a bad hand they have largely dealt themselves not only by losing the presidential election this last timeout but by declaring 10 years ago the deficit don't matter and legislating governing as if that was true. they put themselves in this position and enough of them will recognize that to pass a bad deal that does nothing to cut spending. lori: on this issue of cutting spending, one of the portions or one of the proposals is to let the debt ceiling debate gets delayed for at least a year or two. my question to you is this,

don't democrats understand the dangers of letting our deficit run at these levels? seems like they don't care as much. >> the answer is no. neither political party has a runner made politics around the notion of cutting spending. we are locking in historical expansion of federal spending from $1.8 trillion in last year to $3.8 trillion now, that will go up to 4.7 trillion. whatever happens to this deal will not do anything to get us closer to balance the budget or cutting spending. there are no politics organize around it. democrats think we can borrow money at these rates forever and there is no worry about that, and they will be right until the moment they are wrong and if they are wrong, this countries in a world of trouble. melissa: we're looking at raising taxes on the wealthy, still at the same time that is

the issue at the forefront it seems it has to be settled first to get any further. do you think they will settle in the middle on families that make more than 400,000, a lot of people think that will be the point in the middle that we end it, what do you think? >> both sides right now according to today and yesterday are circling around each other at pretty close levels, it looks like we're heading towards an agreement. i think it will be somewhere there. republicans will have to take a real take on increasing taxes on the wealthy because perversely because they held the line on taxes for only so long instead of talking about spending they're being forced to eat this by barack obama who has campaigned on this for sure, that'll be the first and main hurdle of this and a mixture of spending cuts with scare quotes that will be determined in the future including, i believe, the

major component is future savings are possible interest payments. i am looking forward to those. lori: we're not even get into the discussion of entitlements. they will watch the whole thing backfire on the economy. >> yes, we're taking money out from people's pockets and giving it to governments, still not enough to pay for the true cost of government. the true cost of government right now according to democrats and republicans is at a level if we paid for it we would have permanent recession, which is a charming thing to contemplate. we're talking about tax rates, not talking about entitlements and kicking down the road to discussions of the debt ceiling, anything having to do with entitlement reform or tax reforms and now in a permanent state of governance careening from artificially made deadline prices to artificially made deadline crisis with no actual budgeting or process for even

laying out an annual fiscal planning, an appallin and appalf affairs and this deal will only extend the negotiating. melissa: thanks so much. >> thank you. lori: and appalling state of affairs, that sums it up wonderfully. apple, a major mover despite the analyst downgrade and target cuts. jumping on the bandwagon today, down more than 25% in the last three months as competition of microsoft and samsung galaxy, but what if i told you there is an analyst with a price target on apple of more than $1000. you heard us correctly, $1111 to be exact. @t is brian, we are glad to have him on set with us. glad to have you. >> thank you. lori: that is a very specific target. another thesis of your outlook is based on the pe being very cheap we'll talk about the pe ratio for some time now.

so let's start with the valuation. >> it is trading under eight times cash on numbers. the company has grown at 92% over eight years, the s&p right now trades at about 12 and a half times and has grown 7% per year. lori: the product debuted last week met with quite a thought, yet you're optimistic heading into the new year they will be demand owning the iphone in particular is a status symbol in china. >> there were some concerns when the iphone 5 came out on friday, the numbers over the weekend were over 2 million, which is spectacular. so one of the things i am noticing here in this negative news cycle is that everything is interpreted negatively. why were there no lines in china? a lot of the iphone 5 ordering it online. lori: when do you expect them to

retrace the all-time high? >> i see no reason we can't see that the next three to four months. lori: i have to challenge you, samsung galaxy phone is very popular, microsoft property, windows 7 has a renewed impact, the new app store having the itunes and leadership, tim cook and the whole maps issue is a credit debacle. >> the only competitor out there is samsung that matters. lori: what about tim cook and not a lot of interest in the pipeline? >> tim cook has led the company for several years. so now it is all on his shoulders. when i think about new products, apple tv on the horizon, apple will dominate the tv market over the next five to 10 years. lori: we will see, we will definitely check back in with you. melissa: about to invade u.s.

banks and steal money? a plot straight out of the movies but we will bring you the real-life details straight ahead. lori: heading to break with a big rally on the s&p market today. no need for a safe haven, $22.50 down on that. back with more after this.

melissa: welcome back. let's check the market, nicole petallides on the floor of the new york stock exchange watching toyota for us. nicole: watching toyota because sometimes when the news comes through, you can get some clarity on a stock. up about 3% on the moves we are seeing today moving back to neww highs, 52-week highs, highs we have not seen in years. they were ordered to pay record fines over $17 million for failing to report a defect to the u.s. government in a timely matter. toyota has been over the years with all kinds of things including acceleration on the floor mat, etc. back to you. melissa: nicole, thank you so much. lori: time to make money with charles payne. this hour he is helping us make cash in the tech sector with the global leader of cloud

infrastructure. charles: i like them a lot. they have taken a lot in america. i'll be really nervous with general motors stock. melissa: a little extra bang for the buck. charles: it is a big company, but a lot of people, listen -- melissa: it is a momentum stock. charles: it is. 12 insider buys 3 million shares. listen, people make a big deal out of insider selling and sometimes it can be a red flag were often than not it is a yellow flag, lot of estate planning and stuff like that, imagine if all of your planning was in enron stock and you work at those companies. i love it, they have a string of earnings, the street expects them to outperform the market meaning they will take more market share, all the right places, the data centers, it is breaking out today. from here thin i think it has a

pretty clear shot. melissa: thank you so much. charged with accounting fraud, also charging former street cfo saying he knew of the fraud in the company and executive settle the charges, and doing mental news as well. lori: after graham saying they have the right to post any pictures that you post. melissa: upping the ante for knight capital. exclusive new details as the bidding war intensifies. how the dollar is faring here against foreign currencies. weaker against the euro and the pound. stronger in asia and canada.

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>> it is 21 minutes past the hour.

good morning, everyone. funerals are being held today for two more victims of friday's shooting in newtown, connecticut. families and friends paying theirtheir respects. a wake will be held for the teacher hailed as a hero for sacrificing her life, saving several students. family and friends paying their respects to 27-year-old victoria later today. senator patrick leahy squared in as a distinction given to the most senior member of the majority party in the senate. leahy now third in line for the presidency behind joe biden and john boehner. iraqi president is in a coma at this hour after suffering a stroke. government officials say the president's medical team is working to stabilize his condition. back to you.

melissa: the fate of knight securities could be decided in a moment. exclusive new details on this one. charley. charley: this is coming down to the wire, major investments to help tell them out. they're telling me they expected the decision may be later tonight or early tomorrow morning. why did they do that? or the look medication with the board but this is what you're hearing from investment bankers, they're looking to get this wrapped up. the bid has been up from what i understand. it is more cash. will weise thought tom joyce wanted a $4 bid, the ceo of knight securities and they're starting to get it. they're still stuck in that range between $3-$3.20, all cash.

now starting to convince major shareholders that they have the appropriate bid, this is the deal that should be chosen. when yowe talked major investorr heavily betting gecko gets it. increase the cash portion, with the stock portion has some upside, they think they think we put this all together, knight securities will be essentially sold off, tremendous cost in this infrastructure, lot of overhead and start chipping that away, the stock is moving up toward the bid of gecko. the bid of 320 cash. when you put it all together the fact you can hit cost, you will kill a lot of non-core business, can tell you that is happen. the people at knight know it. the fact is you have the market

making unit, $3.50 sounds like a pretty easy price to get. all of the big investors bought a convertible preferred stock, this is how it held knight out. the price was $1.50, if it goes to $3, you're right there. plus upside in stock. we don't have any definitive decision. i know they're meeting in new york yesterday. when you talked major shareholders, these are the belo shareholders, not the shareholders of people who have something to say, that make all the money. they think getco will win this, but time will tell. melissa: what is your gut on the timing? i am sure you have a sense of how much information is trickling out or how people feel, what is your gut on the timing? charlie: my gut is we will get some clarity today, one of these

stories where there are 100 quarters chasing one dime. and i will be on to the next story. i can't remember the last time i made so much out of a $3 stock. but knight is much more than a $3 stock. knight securities will touch that stock and that is kind of an interesting thing. this is a major player, it matters to the functioning of the market. point out there are two different scenarios on the table. yes, all cash, but they take the company private. they go public at some other point, that is the plan. getco becomes immediately a public company. a reverse merger. getco with becoming public through knight. i wonder what name they will keep, isis post they would keep getco or change it altogether. from a regulation standpoint you have to believe the sec would

favor immediately public company as knight to the notion of transparency. this is a major player in the market, there's a problem at knight, there could be a problem handling retail order flow. just the way it is. when you talk to the major investors, they think tomorrow, tonight, tomorrow. i am not in the room, but who knows what is going on. the ceo could be raising even more cash read if he matches in all cash bid, that is hard to say no to. lori: charlie gasparino, thank you. great reporting. the white house says no thank you to house speaker john boehner trying to push through another bill for anybody making less than $1 million per year a break. melissa: so where does that leave us now? neil cavuto ways in, and that is next. ♪

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nicole: certainly still a great day here in wall street, 13,338

is where the dow was sitting, nasdaq up one and a quarter percent. but tech stocks moving along quite nicely right now. general electric on the move today. a couple of things we should note first and foremost is they see their sales were 2013 up despite all the fiscal cliff worries trying to give positive comments however does not help in the stocks down 2.25%. that is something, production and locomotives and such. some of the other names in the same group like united technologies expects profit to rise. there is a look, it really has been a great performer over 52 weeks up about 30%. thank you. melissa: nicole, thank you so much. lori: leave it to washington cannot even agree on a backup plan for the fiscal cliff. john boehner offering plan b. for the white house.

managing director and host of "cavuto" is here with us. neil, great to see you. one step forward, 12 steps backwards. always try to see if we are making progress, where are we in this negotiation, if it even matters. neil: the street seems to think we are making progress. if it goes down without a deal, we will never materialize, they can at least say we voted on this tax thing, more than we originally proposed, we gave you a trillion dollars over 10 years. what did the democrats offer in return? they almost want to wipe their hands and move on. i don't know if it'll work but it is a way to get the president or democrats to offer something. we have not yet to hear from them.

neil: this is all part of negotiations and all of that. what wall street seems to be celebrating today, they might i only hearken back to the tarp vote. the first is rejected by congress and the market sells off the tune of 777 points, congress reconvenes and fantasy votes for a second tarp. a year later the dow is about 1000 points lower. cooler heads will look at this indin the end and if they see a deal that is 1:1 tax hikes to spending cuts, that is hardly a deal. melissa: does not get us close to anything. as they point out all the details, david asman pointed ou% nancy pelosi -- neil: why is he brilliant? melissa: he is not more brilliant than you are.

neil: he said he is brilliant, and you just said here is neil. back to david and his silly point. melissa: i'm afraid to even bring this up. i will let you judge if it is smart, nancy pelosi basically accepted speaker boehner's proposal back in may. said they should expire and we should use resulting revenues to pay down the debt. this was back in me, like her own idea, great thing and we should go forward with it. that is the offer from speaker boehner. neil: he is right about that, stating the obvious. lori: you hit a nerve, didn't you? neil: they said a good deal would be $3 in spending cutting everyone dollars tax hikes, but we're looking at a best case scenario $1 in spending cuts or $1 in tax hikes.

warming up leftovers and like companies were to do that, think they would be landing in jail, but that is what we're left with. that is what i said be careful of the deal constructed that way because we might live to regret it, especially ones that are contingent to get serious about this next year. melissa: i find it so frustrating it is not a focus on the spending cuts and running the deficit involved. they prove our balance to your point reining in over a decades time, they are not actual cuts. neil: they are not cuts, just slowing, nothing is being cut. many off the top of growth, they still grow, don't grow as much,

so over that, we will have close to $5 trillion. not 10 trillion, nevermind it is not on the sheet of paper to make sense, and that is right now, how does it mak that make n 10 years? melissa: we take in $5 billion per day, can you imagine if you ran your household like that, you go home and shop online. neil: it is unacceptable, and everybody plays this game, but right now they don't touch entitlement, lots of prominent leaders in both the senate and house they leave defense out of it or don't cut social security. when you knock so much off the table, what is left on the table? you can understand how they come back to tax hikes because they figure that is the only game

they are down, let's see how we can squeeze that out. you realize in the end we are not taming the beast, we are fueling the beast. and that is the problem. whether it will be $400,000 level or $1 million level, the issue is that taxes are going up. they are. what bothers us most is where do nothing to address underlining problem of government spending which republicans and democrats would be wise to address because when you leave so much out, they're only more problems coming down the road. lori: it is always a pleasure. neil: did you find it brilliant? be to extra brilliant. lori: neil cavuto, always a pleasure. neil: i wish i could say the same. lori: did i forget you can watch me on fox business at 8:00 p.m. eastern, you'll be joined by rudy giuliani.

neil: should be a brilliant show. melissa: i would for sure call it brilliant at this point. in a report found most coins cost more to make than they are worth. take the pay for example, cost $0.02 to make a penny. how about the nickel? $0.10 to make a 5-cent piece. the dime is the only one that is effective, $0.05 to make a dime. you may remember we reported congress was considering a plan to use steel in pennies and nickels, nobody cares. it is not looking good. a 6% chance of being enacted. lori: at least your updated now.

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>> i am cheryl casone with your fox business brief. conoco phillips selling the business units in a deal worth $1.75 billion. subject to approval and is expected to close by the middle of next year. twitter saying today it hit the 200 million active multiuser mark. the social media giant tweaking the message on the official

account saying the pulse of the planet. reported 100 million active users in september of 2011. a gummy bear battle in europe. winning a legal fight over the gold foil wrapped candy. reporting they violated the trademark on the gold bear name. that is the latest from the fox business network giving you the power to prosper.

lori: as baby boomers age, tire industry has popped up, names like capital senior living and meredith senior living and others profiting on the niche market for senior services. with these stocks anywhere from

30-120% up so far this year, is there still room to run? peter martin covers these names, and you are very bullish on the sector. how come? >> we are very bullish, we look at the group as a cheaper way to play the health and recovery. also to avoid the entitlement discussions going on as you were speaking about earlier in your show on washington, d.c. the senior living operators issue varying levels of care in a residential environment. the industry is predominantly private pay and surprisingly what you might not know is the average age is 83 years old. improving home prices and positive trend in the stock market, these seniors are able to sell their home, the largest aspect of net worth and move into these residences as a plan for their long-term care. so you are seeing tremendous momentum off the bottom in

occupancy in rate increases on a monthly basis. melissa: do they depend on government reimbursement? stocks that you are under pressure because of what is going on in the fiscal cliff. are these driven by private dollars? >> these are more private pay. he mentioned 97% private pay. 80% private pay. the medicare portion of the revenue comes from services, if the company offers some skilled nursing services as part of a continuum of care. melissa: capital senior living stands out because it is up 120%. is there any room left there? >> based on our target we see another 50%. the company is seeing tremendous growth in occupancy, they will probably put through some stronger than average rent

increases. and the relative value underlines the company is very valuable i and could be a takeot target for those looking to expand their asset exposure in the senior housing industry because it is private pay and it is not tied to medicare or medicaid. melissa: how do you feel about brookdale? >> capital senior living is the top pick in the group. we like brookdale senior living. another 30% upside. this is a larger national player, $3 billion market cap, it discussions the company has actually monetizing its real estate or spinning off its own, so there is a lot of value to be realized. 60% of the alzheimer's unit, but i think there is tremendous operating leverage in 13 and 14

as the fundamentals improve occupancy rates, so yes, all three are good. melissa: thank you very much, we're always looking for ways to make money right now. thanks a lot. >> thank you, melissa. lori: breaking news, knight capital board will meet at 3:00 p.m. eastern to decide on the winning bid for the company. knight could not be immediately reached for comment, stay tuned though, breaking news sure to happen. let's check the market, nicole petallides on tte floor of the new york stock exchange with some action influencing things. nicole: this is a big deal, particularly in media. let's take a look at how the stocks are faring. nielsen 3.7%, so this is a deal that has been in theeworks, moving to new 5 50 a new 52-week high on this deal, $1.3 billion deal as far as the value, and both are almost a monopoly in

each of their industries. nielsen ratings determine about $70 billion in annual television ads spending and together these two names when you put them together will have basically an average revenue of about $6 billion. a key tie up, you can see it was obviously to a premium, jumping almost 24%. melissa: thanks. a new round of cyber attacks aimed at stealing millions of dollars from u.s. banks that may leave your money at risk. adam shapiro following this story. >adam: falling 30 constitutional institutions. this is incredible threat from an expected to be launched sometime in the spring. i have already been doing it since 2007 testing earlier variants of the trojan spyware which they have allowing them to

get into your accounts, they claimed to have already transferred $5 million. i spoke the founder and president with strategic risk consultancy. 26 years with the u.s. air force, military intelligence, he says the best thing you can do to protect yourself is check your account everyday. callinpulling on the banks to ie their security measures as you log into account one of the ways that hackers are getting your information is they send you to a false page and be put in the data and they steal it. one other thing going on, they're targeting high net worth individuals. normal people still have to check your account everyday. high net worth individuals still check the bank. melissa: tonight on "money," cyber terrorism expert will join me to talk in-depth about the new string of cyber terrorist

attacks and this time as we mentioned, they're stealing your money. before they tried to down the site, that they have decided to take your cash. tonight at 5:00 p.m. eastern on fox business. lori: mcdonald's for christmas dinner? pushing franchisees to keep the doors open december 25. melissa: say cheese. instagram has reported it has the rights to sell your photos, there is no way for you to opt out of this one.

lori: instagram riling up users today saying ownership of photos uploaded to its app. shibani joshi with details. so anything i put out is subject to anything? shibani: anything and anything. maybe more likely to see pictures of her kids, but this is what is happening. instagram posted on the company blog, which we all visit every single day, so something we would easily have picked up on. yesterday they said to help us deliver interesting sponsored content or promotions, you agree a business or other entity may pay us to display your user name, likeness, photos and or actions you take in connection with paid or sponsored content

or promotions you agree that a business where the entity may pay us displayed with out any conversation to you. there's nothing you can do about this. january 16 is when it kicks into effect. you don't want to play, don't post. lori: other entities will pay instagram for your hard work. shibani: yes, absolutely. lori: where else can you go? shibani: there are lots of other choices, which is what i like to tell our viewers. we don't have to be subject to this horrible policy, which i feel like it's going to change because there is so much outcry over it. so many other filesharing sites. flickr has already come out and said they will do nothing of this sort. this is a big opportunity for some of the startup companies

again we know instagram purchased by facebook for a billion dollars and you have to pay that off. lori: they don't have a lot of good shots. melissa: thank you. forget your turkey, glazed ham, one on a couple of happy meals for your kids and head off to grandma's house. mcdonald's ceo is encouraging franchisees to open on christmas day hoping to capitalize on the 93 million people hitting the roads on the holidays, 12,000 10 restaurants that opened on thanksgiving turkey and $36 million more dollars than last year. i am guilty of having gone to mcdonald's on christmas. lori: get the kids some mcdonald's tide them over. i am tired of chinese food on christmas so i think this is fantastic if mcdonald's opens. the president lifting his income

tax threshold. are we moving any closer to a deal to avoid the fiscal cliff? more with tracy byrnes and -- the webster next on fox business. [ male announcer ] you are a business pro.

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ridge. ashley: i am ashley webster. some action on the fiscal cliff but is it too late to stop the worst case scenario? you can see 13 days away the very latest on president obama's new offer and john boehner's new backup plan. trrcy: one california industry that can abide rising taxes. we will tell you how vineyards and hundreds of thousands of employees are coping. ashley: solid gains for stocks

in 2012. one big money strategist is going defensive for the new year. ing's bug could they will be here. tracy: the dow is up 110 points time for stocks as we do every 15 minutes. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange. good day so far. nicole: if you are a bowl you are happy, and things up 110 points and up nearly 1% on the dow jones industrials, the s&p 500 up 1% as well ended ticketing nasdaq up 1-1/4% and we are trending to the upside and there is a belief that washington will in some way, shape or form solve the issues pertaining to the fiscal cliff and financials have been taking off and that has helped things along and shown seller strength as well and bank of america is the best performer of the financial industry on the s&p 500. bank of america hit a 52 week high trading as high as $11.28,

is up $0.19 but you see 1.5% and yesterday you had meredith whitney talking positively about financials, a degrading banc of america, citigroup and discover financial so certainly positive sentiment on wall street. tracy: we will take it with this fiscal cliff nonsense. ashley: major developments in the battle over the fiscal cliff. house republicans meeting in three hours to plan their next move. it comes after president obama raised his income threshold for tax hikes to $400,000 and john boehner propose a backup plan that was quickly rejected by the white house. rich edson live in d.c. with all the latest on the wrangling that is going on. >> house republicans gather a few hours for more details on john boehner's backup plan. that is a proposal to prevent attacks rate increase on families earning less than the

one million dollars the year in john boehner's plan b is a nonstarter. the white house says the president has offered a reasonable bipartisan compromise. john boehner says that is not so. >> white house offer was $1.3 trillion in new revenue for $850 billion in net spending reductions. that is not balanced in my opinion. >> jay carney says the president has demonstrated he is willing to move towards republicans and using as evidence the fact the speaker has raised his threshold and the president raised his threshold for tax increases from $250,000 to $400,000. despite the not back a plan john boehner says he will continue to negotiate a larger bipartisan-deal with the president. the speaker's backup plan fails to address the automatic spending cuts scheduled to begin in january. on a comprehensive debt deal the president and speaker remain a

few hundred billion dollars apart on spending cuts, tax increases and by how much to raise the debt ceiling. that last point very difficult for republicans to swallow. ashley: the clock keeps ticking. tracy: john boehner and president obama are still discussing the fiscal cliff but with no deal in place and plan b getting rejected by the white house many taxpayers may be unable to file their tax returns in 2013, senior fellow and tax-loss editor here with ideas on what to expect when you filed this year but i find it so appalling that we are in the same place again, frankly worse. this time this year we don't know about whether they are going to extend all those extra $100 billion, we are just wondering. >> welcome to washington. this is where i live every day.

tracy: is very unsettling. no one is doing anything about this. what bothers me most puts thirty million people affected by this, the conspirators in me thinks this is washington's way of putting a small flat tax and let it go but the reality is they will pass the tax. >> i agree. i think it will too. what is important to understand is most of the tax cuts they're arguing about will happen next year. theseeare tax cuts that will take effect or not take effect in 2013 and they will affect people when they file tax returns in 2014. the alternative minimum tax is different, it goes year to year with a patch which keeps the a.m. tee to adjust for inflation, and it keeps twenty million people, mostly middle-income and upper middle income people with large families and high tax states, that expired at the beginning of 2012 so that is over for many

people. if they don't adjust this and fix this problem in the next few weeks what is going to happen is when people begin to file their tax returns in january or february next year they are not going to know what to do, they won't be able to file returns. this is one where they have to get fixed -- tracy: you can plan a little bit and they're not allowing people time to do that. let's talk about the fiscal cliff. we have $1 million on the table and $400,000 on the table. do you think maybe that means we will come to compromise? >> these guys are close on spending and taxes. and the real issue here is whether john boehner can sell a deal that includes significant tax increases to his caucus in the house. i don't think there's any problem -- there will be a lot of yelling and screaming but democrats will do what obama

wants them to do. they will accept relatively modest increases or cuts in entitlement spending. the big issue is going to be can house republicans stomach something that will be close to $1 trillion increase? tracy: you and i both know they come to 750 -- taxable income, raising taxes, it is a rounding error and the amount of money they will collect from these people, taking money out of people's wallets for political purposes. >> talking about a couple hundred billion dollars, raising taxes on people making $250,000 or $1 million is real money. it is nothing to sneeze at, in terms of the people affected is real money, it could be $100,000 in higher taxes. it is real money. it isn't trivial.

in the scheme of things, in deficit-reduction, when a comes to real people in matters. when you want to balance the budget you need to deal with spending and taxes, the question is whose taxes go up? my argument is there going the wrong way. you ought to raise taxes not just for people making 400 that raising taxes for people making 150. tracy: if we had time we will talk about the and income-tax credit. that drives me bananas. thank you for sharing your thoughts. tracy: may be due to everybody even though i don't trust that they know how to spend it. ashley: are the markets paying too much attention to the fiscal cliff? ing chief strategist doug cote says yes. we will tell you what they should be focusing on. >> facing not so fun changes, mattel executive tim kill one

tells us how the industry is adapting. let's take a look at how oil is trading. $87.84 a barrel, those driving during the holidays. we will be back.

tracy: having fun already. how to make money, talking about china's leading internet television company, youtube. charles: where i will be doing my infomercials'. ashley: i can see now. charles: this is the chinese internet stock public went up like a rocket and came down to earth. what i like here is exposure to china. i have been talking about on a lot of levels. shipping -- not a chinese company but should benefit from the traffic and from this side volume is fantastic. i like the risk reward on this company. they got 35% penetration and youtube has more. goldman said chinese's economy is going to do better and checked out this site and tried to download prometheus and they wouldn't let me do it but i did find that it is -- you have to

be in mainland china. they couldn't help me either. american revolution, two broke girls and korean television, taiwanese television and revenues of 50%. the risk is still in this space making money. they got a lot of traffic but monetizing -- ashley: access to there -- what china doesn't so you are restricting your audience. ashley: restricted to 1.3 billion people. not too bad. ashley: actually have access to it. ashley: a lot. listen, the same sort of phenomenon. the kids love it and how do you monotype is it? the story with facebook taking people's images, if tracy put a photo of me on her face book page does facebook go my photograph because she posted it? a lot of questions about how to monetizes but because the stock has come back i like the risk

reward and lack of portrayed but anyone who likes it should consider 17.5. [talking over each other] ashley: we like when you bring this up. ashley: never understand china is a communist country but there is a massive growing middle-class spending money like crazy. charles: on that note when they get rid -- from the communist party -- a sine die will stick with the capitalist angle period. ashley: there you go. thank you. it is coming up to a quarter past the hour. time for stocks. nicole petallides on the floor of the stock exchange where we go every 15 minutes, a big media merger. nicole: we are looking at a big media merger. charles payne put a stop loss on facebook, at least if people do buy it they know how to take their losses. bob petronis of 24% and we have

nielsen at a 20% premium. that is why you see armaron moving, one is television and what is real but determining how much advertisers pay. we watching this, $1.6 billion acquisition. this is why you are seeing a move. why is nielsen doing it? it plans to expand its watched measure to keep tabs on consumer viewing and worsening habits across the television, computers and mobile devices. ashley: thanks, we will be back. tracy: we should tell you charles said is tough on facebook was 24, 17 -- ashley: oh. [talking over each other] tracy: much more on the markets. doug cote, is the market too focused on the fiscal cliff? what he is worried about more is next. ashley: how the dollar is

moving, a bit of risk appetite coming back into the market. the result of that, the euro up 132-28 busting through the 131 level, the pound is expensive. go to paris and london. we will be right back. you know how painful heartburn can be. for fast, long lasting relief, use doctor recommended gaviscon®. only gaviscon® forms a protective barrier that helps block stomach acid from splashing up- relieving the pain qukly. try fast, long lasting gaviscon®. but we can still help you see your big picture. with the fidelity guided portfolio summary, you choose which accounts to track and use fidelity's analytics to spot trends, gain insights, and figure out what you want to do next. all in one place.

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>> 20 minutes past the hour, your fox news minute. funerals are being held for two more victims of friday's shooting in connecticut. family and friends paying their respects to two 6-year-olds. day wake will be held as a teacher hail the hero for saving several students and that device in her life. family and friend of paying their request -- respects to victoria so today. patrick leahy is sworn in as president pro tem, a distinction given to the senior most member of the majority party in the senate making him third in line for the presidency behind vice president joe biden and house speaker john boehner. he replaces daniel inyoue. and the -- government officials last saying the president's

medical team is working to stabilize his condition, a quick look at headlines this hour. back to you. tracy: thank you very much. the fiscal cliff pushing gold futures to a three month low. sandra smith is in the pits of the cme. you would think it would go up. sandra: down $30. trading above, you got to make some sense of this. you would think in all this uncertainty around fiscal cliff we would get a jump in gold prices but it is selling off higher. >> in a long-term you got to own gold. continue to give our politicians a break and if they let our politicians make bad decisions and not cut spending have long as that is the case got to buy breaks in gold. 3 sandra: described the tone and the trading floor mid fiscal cliff talks? libya duly done? >> the framework for a deal has been met politicians have a disincentive for showing

compromise early. politicians if they have reached a basic plan are not going to say they caved in now. they will wait until the eleventh hour and fifty-nine minute. the politicians -- sandra: oil prices have been up all day about $0.80, above $80 a barrel. what is happening? >> if you look at the october and november demand we said, the global usage of crude-oil and all-time highs and every single day in october and november you got to by breaking crude for sure. tracy: ameritrade from tres knippa and traders want volatility. that is how they make money. this uncerrainty is good for the market. ashley: for good for them. thank you. the national association of home builders announcing today homebuilder sentiment rose in december for the eighth month in a row, hitting on highest level in six years. this puts the index up 47, close to the 50 level. anything below 15 fewer than half of the home builders

surveyed need conditions as good. homebuilder stocks rallying on the news. all green arrows, nicely up, told brothers up 1%, standard pacific up 4 present on this news that does appear, all the latest data we're getting regarding the housing industry is on the positive side, not a lot of head winds and chateau inventory, prices needs come back but signs of improvement are there. tracy: housing starts in the first quarter of the year, new york, new jersey because of the storm. all that rebuilding you see housing so that is happening. you take it. from california you are about to talk about higher taxes have some companies packing up and moving to other states. what do you do when you are tied to the land. california wineries which produce 90% of u.s. wine and impact 300,000 jobs could take a

serious hit. founder and ceo of thecommerce.com joins us with more. that is not correct. you are more of the media platform. you started out -- >> because of some unpleasant california regulation pivoted to the media company and we have grown successful but we considered going into ecommerce that haven't yet. tracy: you don't sell wine but in your top 100 influential people in the wine world number 23 you go. so that being said you are in the wine world what is being said? they can't move their vineyards. mother nature bless this part of the country. they can't move that land. >> this is a supermajority. people anticipate higher taxes, not aggressive taxes.

and it is the time, certainly as far as i know in the research i have done not friendly to winery's who as you say can't move. tracy: they win $65 billion and not being friendly and all because they cannot move. they will pick of the tab. >> i agree with you. tracy: let's talk about the ecommerce business with wine. so many cross border issues, is that hard? >> it is difficult shipping wine in the u.s. is like shipping 50 different countries even though we are the united states of america and the burden is on the winery to figure out which states can or cannot ship and make sure wine is complained to shipping to states but these huge tax burden, regulatory burden should be lifted for california. tracy: and it is not. >> there is no universal policy about universally acceptable shipping. tracy: each state has its own

rules. this content as commerce because that is what you are moving toward. >> we started ecommerce and might go back but this trend -- one an ounce it raised $50 million including scripts now work as in food network, they rent the runway, netflix are high fashion, raise money, earlier this year. this is a trend where big media companies are investing in traditional ecommerce sites, to diversify their business model, not just be advertising based business model but potentially ecommerce. tracy: they have the ability to sell home furnishings and that makes you like big brother conglomerate? >> kind of but more kindly said it is taking the view we are here to educate and entertain consumers about specific verticals and readers of vogge or viewers of the network actually have a passion for

luxury goods and a passion for an epicurean lifestyle and want to get more of it so why don't we help them get it? tracy: you going to do that with bottlenecks? >> hope so. ashley: we have done our part for the wine industry. [talking over each other] tracy: private equity firm service selling its stake in a gunmaker tied to a connecticut school shooting. gerri willis is on that story next. ashley: let's look at today's winners and losers, the dow off of the high of the session up 95 points, stocks doing well, the apollo group of 4.5%, seagatt technology up 4%. we will be right back.

ashley: 30 past the hour a check of the markets as we do everything 15 minutes. nicole petallides on a floor of the stock exchange. nicole: here is somebody who's said washington was factored in to a certain extent. right now 85 points is not a bad day. >> fiscal cliff, fiscal goal, begging you to buy stocks and that is what you have to do, only place you can get any yield. nicole: we are looking at stocks that can be beaten down and the action we have seen from the fed making easier to buy stocks? >> as long as interest rates are zero, and you will see that going until the end of the year once we get through the tax mess with year end selling and this

year we will see a real pop and a true january effect. nicole: apple, we have seen it move around a lot. what is the broadbased feeling on tech and apple? >> i love the stock but quite frankly, reinventing the wheel, you can't short company's agreement of the wheel all time. tracy: okay. nicole: there you have it. giving us some insight into this market. not bad so far. ashley: hanging in there. thank you very much in 15 minutes. nicole: tracy: service capital management has sold its stake in freedomgroup whose rifle was used in the connecticut school massacre friday. is this a new front in the war over gun control? here with the latest is gerri willis. what do you think of this?

gerri: mayor was a day, there was a time when -- we're talking the california teachers' union, these two entities were considered highly moral operators in the world of investing. they were the first to pull out of south africa investments. people paid attention to what they did and others to do the same thing. these two unions are bilking of the state of california out of every dollar they can get. you see into something like this, put pressure on a private investment company to dump stake in a legitimate company and you got to think is that really leadership? ashley: the knee-jerk reaction to everything going gone. gerri: i don't know it is a knee-jerk. i believe they think they're taking a leadership role. this is the teachers' union. teachers were killed. i would not say is a knee-jerk.

it is fought through but it is interesting how our view of these two unions has changed so dramatically over the decades that now you see something dramatic like this and stand back, is that something i want to follow or not? because then there is the notion of social investing. should you care about that when investing? ashley: depends what your beliefs are. tracy: will we see more and more of that? gerri: we see less and less of it over time, used to be popular not so much now but we could see more of it. interesting to see them do this. these two unions have really been critically important in putting the state of california in a financial bind. ashley: the other part of story. [talking over each other] tracy: would you have tonight?

gerri: we will have a heck of a good time. we will talk about this, working on some revealing numbers about the budget debate which will be fascinating, excited about that. we will be talking fiscal cliff. ashley: is going on. are they getting closer? [talking over each other] tracy: 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. eastern. ashley: he has been bullish but one strategist is turning defensive. ing's doug cote tells us why next. tracy: how treasuries are trading, a 5 basis points,.83% and you're 30 year moving as well. up 7 basis points. we will be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] this is karen anjeremiah.

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shibani: i am shibani joshi with your fox business brief. charlie gasparino reporting night capital's board will meet at 3:00 to discuss the winning bid for the company. we've reported some major investors. and samsung withdrawal requests for injunctions against apple in germany, the netherlands, italy, france and the u.k. after a federal judge yesterday denies apple's request to ban sales of samsung's smart phone found to illegal use apple technology and instantgramm says it has the right to sell your photos without payment for notification and there is no way to opt out. move such to take effect on january 16th and the policy coming from three months after facebook completed its acquisition of the photo sharing sight. that is the latest from fox

business giving you the power to prosper.

ashley: budget talks in washington dominating headlines. our investors overlooking the bigger global threat than the fiscal cliff? joining us doug cote, chief market strategist withing investment management. always spending too much time worrying about the fiscal cliff and what worrres you on the global scale? >> fundamental you shouldn't focus too much on politicians anyway, what we are looking at is paying attention to the fundamentals of corporate earnings, what matters to companies and what we have seen is this is the first quarter in twelve consecutive quarters that year over year earnings growth is negative. that means something is happening in the global economy, either in the emerging markets or europe or japan and what we

are seeing is that is a signal for economic slowdown, that matters to the market. what we are advocating is ride out this christmas rally going into the new year and turn back equities a little bit. we are not going to over do it. we are going to good defensive because of a lot head wind going forward. ashley: we just got the latest housing index, was pretty positive, highest level in 6-1/2 years so perhaps more traction in housing. goldman sachs uping its outlook in 2013. what inspired you in particular? >> good economy challenging fundamentals, if you look at it, over time you want to file a fundamentals because once you get one negative earnings signal, it is like cockroaches, you see when you are going to see another so already in the fourth quarter the earnings

expectation is being ratcheted down dramatically so we think we could get back to back negative quarters in earnings so even though housing is turning around, even though china is starting to locate good economy but bad market, challenging market for the fundamentals and that is why you need to be positioned to turn back equities and move into bonds. ashley: that is a defensive move, isn't it? >> broadly speaking, you have high yield, definitely exposure to risk assets, global bonds which we like a lot, corporate bonds and government. i am not saying go short duration. i like the duration, you're getting paid for credit risks so even if there is a rally in the equity market high-yield will pick that up so i am just saying right now going to the beginning of the year there are enough challenges not only the fiscal cliff but the health care bill,

dodd of regulation, i don't know how that all plays out but it doesn't look market friendly and certainly not pro-growth economic policy. ashley: we have seen a lot of money coming out of these mutual funds and going into etss, up by 26% this year alone. will that trend continue as we head into the new year? >> we like active management but i think the ets trend is here, definitely the biggest part of the market and even portfolio managers can use them to hedge or get exposure until they're o ready to select stocks so with the very important asset class but over the long term broadly across the equity bonds active management is superior. ashley: what area would you say avoid at all costs? >> at all costs i like to be

globally diversified but i would say i am concerned about financials, the financial sector, the fed is saying they can't do any more acquisitions and when they can distribute capital, pay dividends and that is too much government interference into one sector. ashley: the sector has been moving nicely in recent days. thank you so much, doug cote. we appreciate it. tracy: breaking news. oil closing up $0.73 at $87.93 a barrel. moving up. the godzilla of tv ratings business in a deal today to buy up one of the few firms that never survive to be beaten against it, dennis kneale has that story. sounds like it is all big brother and one roof. dennis: insured does. the nielsen co. has for decades dictated how billions of dollars in tv ad spending is divvied up

every year and are much ron has challenge that. nielsen will pay its arch-rival $1.2 billion, up 26% premium over were closed in trading yesterday. shares are up 25% today reflecting nielsen's nice offer. the company's figure can be as nielsen's per share earnings by 10% extra in 2 years and nielsen trading up 4% on the same news but so ends a long-running rivalry in the ratings business where nielsen has been the dominant giant forever in the 70s and 80s, fierce rivals, arethatron reed treated in to radio only. nielsen vastly bigger firm has revenue of 10 times the size, nielsen net income has five times as large, the two firms

will clear $6 billion in annual sales and that combination may hit $350 million in net income. in the past two years nielsen stock price up almost 20%. the deal added radio ratings to the service for local national tv, internet streaming, cellphones and even a new twitter rating service nielsen announced yesterday. the question, with nielsen buying up one of its last big competitors, will the second gasser's at the justice department raise any antitrust concerns? stay tuned. tracy: i guess. total big brother. thank you. ashley: time for stocks. we will look at those as we do every 15 minutes with nicole petallides. -poracle coming out "after the bell" tonight. nicole: will be interesting to watch because the company quarter ended at 30 or so. nomy.emed the bellwether for new

we will see if the fiscal cliff has something to do with their numbers. most of the folks thinks that is going to post higher quarterly results. here is look at stocks right now, a 1-year chart up 1.7% today up $0.55 but you see the one your chart looks pretty good back-and-forth action. ashley: of course. oracle has to say -- thank you. coming up, is the rise in gaming and other high-tech toys putting the pinch on traditional sales, toy sales this holiday season? we will find out. michele executive ways in next. tracy: little kids once these. first, let's look at today's winners and losers as we head to break on the nasdaq, green mountain coffee rose to uptalk for buying watches up 3% today. we will be right back. [ male announcer ] how do you trade?

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tracy: president obama's fiscal proposal has a dramatic change that will bring in tens of billions of dollars into the government and the fact tens of millions of americans including fifty-six million social security beneficiaries. it is not about tax hikes. liz macdonald is more with the bottom line. this is about fuzzy accounting. liz: the president has spending cuts in his fiscal cliff deal and it will bring in $136 billion, up to $270 billion over ten years.

the government would use a dorr cost-of-living adjustment for social security checks. that will bring in $136 billion over ten years and cut social security benefits for the average retiree age 65 by $660 a year and that will happen by age 75 and that will happen by age 85, the union's heatedly opposed this, richard trumka says calling on congress to reject this idea the president is offering to lower government cost-of-living adjustments and also democrat bernie sanders says it will be harder for today's average senior citizen to make ends meet and there's a fairness issue the argument is from the democrats and unions that seniors have high health-care costs and the use of a lower rate is unfair because things like chicken over beef or buying cheaper items when a senior health care costs is going up and does that lower the rate?

does not acknowledge that so there's a big fight that is about to be waved over the president's plan to do spending cuts by social security and other government checks that go out the door. tracy: good stuff as always. ashley: one week left until christmas. what are the top toys for 2012? from all terrain hot wheels to a barbie that doubles as the camera, mattel pulling out all the stops this holiday season. for more on the plans to drive holiday sales we are joined by the executive vice president of mattel brands. thank you for being here. we have some toys right here with us. what are the top toys or hot toys this year? >> one of the hottest is monster high. we launched a couple years ago as you can see. the team offspring of famous movie monsters doing incredibly well. $750 million of sales worldwide this year.

we have our perennial multigenerational brand like barbie and hot wheels doing well. ashley: barbie doubling as a camera. >> barbie photo fashion doll, one of our hot times and works as a digital camera and becomes the fashion on barbie's t-shirt. ashley: how many pictures kennedy? >> 50 and you can download from your own computer. ashley: is that a trend where you take today's technology and incorporate it in plastic toys like body? >> absolutely. kids are very intuitively familiar with that kind of technology. they want to find different ways to place a we try to bring our brands to live with that technology. ashley: what about new toys? everything is so high-tech these days, computers and what have you. is it hard to continue to go with a classic simple toy are they on the decline? >> there are patterns that are timeless. there's always a place to play with little cars and make race or crash or a train twister where we can bring this to life

across all different kinds of terrain so those things are timeless. ashley: from all accounts toy spending by average americans is down a little bit. how do you counteract that? >> we have to bring innovation with our brand and so you see things like the barbie photo fashion doll or monster high and things like wall traps and hot wheels. wherever we can bring innovation we gain share in those categories. ashley: what about the psyche of the consumer? consumer spending a concern for you going into this? so much uncertainty out there with high unemployment rate still. >> we have seen consumers and retailers have been cautious all we manage their business accordingly and been cautious as well. we want to bring that innovation to light and so we focus on that to make sure at the end of the day christmas will come and these core brands will be in the tree. ashley: they have to reduce prices to be in this competitive world of everybody looking for

sales? >> we try to let retailers make those decisions but we try to be fair about pricing. ashley: consistent with pricing for the retailers, up to them where they go? >> that is right. ashley: what is the top seller of all these toys? >> it is hard to beat barbie. barbie has been around 53 years and continues to do incredibly well. ashley: thank you for being here. one week left to get the toys. tracy: have you extrapolated from measurements? her waist is only 17 inches. a little bit of information. ashley: you have done the math. [talking over each other] tracy: liz claman takes us through the last hour of trading. knows how to get things done in washington and the board room. greg carlos has been here and a blueprint to fix this budget mess first on fox. count down to the closing bell is next.